Kalamazoo countdown...

[ellid]

*cues up deep, slightly foreign voice a la Diamonds are Forever*

Thirteen days, and counting....


To do:

1. Finish revisions.

2. Choose, print, and have illustrations made into transparencies.

3. Send to beta readers (waves at orphandani, xrian, and [Unknown site tag]).

4. Start packing list.

5. Set aside time to respond to readers' comments.

6. Send final presentation copy to National Gallery for their files on the Cimabue Madonna.

7. Create "script," complete with illustration cues.

8. Time it.

9. Cut it.

10. Pack.

11. Make reservation at long-term parking in Connecticut.

12. Take time to collapse in a heap *before* I leave so I'll be somewhat coherent....

Comments

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

If you have the illustrations in jpeg or pdf format, don't bother to print them. Just take a disk or thumb drive to your local OfficeMax (or Depot, Staples, or Kinkos) and they will print them directly to transparency. It doesn't cost any more and the quality is better as a print than a copy.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I don't have a thumb drive and my computer doesn't take disks, only CD's. *am a Luddite*

[aunty_marion]

These days, most print places will take CDs, if you have a CD writer. And if your computer has USB ports, I really do recommend that you get yourself a thumb drive/memory stick. They're just so worth it for the convenience, and they're getting cheaper all the time. I dumped the Snupin calendar onto one to take to a print shop, only to find - alas! - that they couldn't print it on American-sized paper...

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

If it was formatted as a pdf then you went to a faulty print shop.

[aunty_marion]

No, I live in the UK. We only get the A3/A4/A5 etc paper sizes over here. For loose paper for printing and so on, that is - we can't get the US paper sizes at all! You can occasionally buy bound notepads in quarto, or file folders in foolscap, but that's about it. 'Letter' size appears (thanks to Microsnot) in computer program print setups, but it's not really much use here.

To print it at all, it would have had to be on A3 (for the full-size version), and then trimmed to fit, and they'd have had to do a lot of alignment work to get the back-to-back pages right and then there would have been all the fun of trying to get it stapled in the right place when the staplers are probably set up for A4/A3/whatever...

*cries*

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I interpreted your comment to say that the calendar was in A4 and couldn't be printed on 'letter'. I can hear your frustration though. My copy dept sup just went through the reverse for a 'bridezilla' who had ordered her invitation paper from Oz but hadn't designed her text to account for that fact.

Nevertheless, at least in most word processing programs (including Word 2003, as I just checked) there is a page scaling function which should auto scale the pages to the appropriate sized paper. A4 paper is on the list in my version of Word. But as you say there may still be issues with alignment.

Now you have made me curious, but I can't get A3 or A4 paper over here. *grin*

[aunty_marion]

No, the calendar's a pdf in Letter size! *g* I tried the 'scale to page' in Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is what I open pdf files in), but all that happens is that it stays the same size image but with a blank border round two sides. The 'scale to page' doesn't, apparently, mean 'FIT to page'!

(Ellid, sorry for hijacking your comments like this...)

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

Yes, sorry for the hijack.

How odd. Now I am curious and am going to have to hunt up the files in question.

I work for OfficeMax and do a fair bit in the copy center so this is an intriguing problem for me.

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

By disk I really did mean CD. The other sort is a floppy. *grin* If you can burn them, it is so much easier that way,

[varianor.livejournal.com]

Are you flying out? There's some pretty cheap lots around Bradley these days. As low as $7.99 a day and they still have a shuttle.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Which one do you recommend? I've always liked Roncari....

[varianor.livejournal.com]

Roncari isn't $7.99 a day. They do however give an AAA discount, and are very close to the airport. I've always liked their service and use them a lot. If you're only going for a couple days, and prefer the convenience, it's worth not parking 2 miles away.

[owlfish]

If you're going to need to print transparencies again in the future, you can stock up on transparencies made for printing yourself at home. (Not that the ones for laser printers are much, much cheaper, and not interchangeable with the ones for ink jet printers. Still, with the ink jet printer ones, it means I can print my own full-color transparencies whenever I need them.)

[ellid.livejournal.com]

They have them for ink jets? Hallelujah! I can save myself a lot of both. Thanks!

[owlfish]

Yes, they do! It'll save you time, but if your photocopy needs are in b+w especially, it'll be a lot cheaper to pay someone else to transfer your prints onto transparencies for you. But if color - then yes! So useful! And you can redo them and change your mind and make last minute additions! (My memory is that it's about $1-2/page for blank transparencies for ink jet printers. Something like that. But they keep.)

[owlfish]

Looking around online, it's closer to $1 per Inkjet transparency film, with occasional sales bringing it to less, although I wouldn't expect to see it for less at a retail shop. You usually have a choice between buying a few (10) or a bunch (30-50) per pack.